Typical practice in the medical and veterinary fields require the taking of x-rays and the subsequent development of the x-ray slides. The development of the x-ray slides can be achieved with any number of x-ray slide processors known in the prior art and sold on the open market. These x-ray processors have a single feed mechanism, wherein only one undeveloped x-ray slide can be fed into the x-ray processor at a time. After the x-ray film is processed, a procedure that varies but usually takes about 30 to 45 seconds, a user must manually advance the next undeveloped slide so that it feeds into the x-ray processor. However, manually advancing another undeveloped slide after each slide develops is a repetitive and time wasting procedure that prevents the user from tending to other tasks or responsibilities.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a film feed for an x-ray processor wherein a multiplicity of undeveloped film slides can be loaded into film feed that will automatically feed a new undeveloped slide into an x-ray processor after the previous slide is developed by the processor, thereby eliminating the requirement of manually advancing each individual slide into the processor and allowing the user to leave the processor unattended while all the slides develop.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an automatic film feed that is detachable from the x-ray processor and can work a multiplicity of x-ray processors of different styles and brands.